Who is Maitland Ward, Boy Meets World star turned adult film actress? After White Chicks she quit acting, cosplayed Princess Leia in 2007, then starred in her first adult film, Drive, in 2019

Mar 20 , 2025

Maitland Ward in 90s sitcom Boy Meets World; and as an adult movie star today. Photos: @maitlandward/Instagram

Ward says that since she became an adult movie star people have treated her ‘with more respect’; she is also the author of memoir My Escape from Hollywood: Unapologetic, Unfiltered, and Unashamed

It’s been almost 25 years since the coming-of-age sitcom Boy Meets World wrapped – and its stars have taken very different paths in the two-plus decades since. The flame-haired beauty in the show’s final two seasons, Rachel McGuire, was played by Maitland Ward, who was in her early 20s – and who has now evolved from a beloved young star into an adult-film icon.

After tasting fame in Boy Meets World, Ward found herself in the Hollywood spotlight. But in 2007 she made the surprising decision to step away from mainstream acting; 12 years later she entered the adult-film industry.

Maitland Ward and the Boy Meets World cast. Photo: @maitlandward/Instagram

“I really think people treat me with more respect now, honestly, especially even in Hollywood right now,” Ward said in an interview with the New York Post a few days ago.

“I really got a lot of positivity overall, which shocked everyone I knew. Everybody thought people were just going to rip me apart, and I was going to be judged and raked across the coals, but I got so much positivity and I think it’s because I was so positive about it, and I was so happy about it,” she added.

Maitland Ward is now a star of adult movies. Photo: @maitlandward/Instagram

But who exactly is Maitland Ward – and what prompted her to embrace this new chapter of her career?

Who is Maitland Ward?

Maitland Ward preparing to shoot. Photo: @maitlandward/Instagram

Born in Long Beach, California, in 1977, Ward (real name Ashley Maitland Welkos) saw her television career kick off at 17 when she joined the cast of soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, as Jessica Forrester, in 1994. Her big break came in 1998 when she joined Boy Meets World as a cast member in seasons six and seven.